A.

B.

C.

D.

E.

F.

G.

QUARTZ – “Herkimer Diamond”
Middleville, Herkimer County , New York
The area around Middleville , New York is world renowned for its water clear, double terminated Quartz crystals, called “Herkimer Diamonds”.  These specimens have been selected because of their interesting inclusions.  Please note that, on all specimens, the inclusions must be viewed with 10-30X magnification for best appreciation.  The inclusions characterized below have been marked on each specimen with red tape arrow pointers.  The tiny red arrow pointers can be removed with tweezers, if you prefer, after you have familiarized yourself with the internal inclusions and their respective locations within the crystal.  Please note that many hundreds of crystals have been laboriously checked with a microscope to locate and characterize these few crystals with inclusions.   Special features noted within the “Herkimer Diamonds” from the Middleville area are described below.  Pricing is relative to the external perfection of the crystals, as well as to their clarity and amount of special features present.  The field collectors in Herkimer County , New York , who work to recover these specimens, place the highest value upon the moveable and stationary bubble inclusions because of their higher degree of rarity than the other types of inclusions.  All specimens are 100% complete, double terminated, externally perfect crystals with the exception of items B., C., F., and G. which have minor external imperfections, i.e., tiny points of contact where the crystals were attached to the wall of the pocket, during formation. None of the crystals have matrix.  Item F. has two crystals in penetration, so the dimensions of both crystals are given in the table below.

1. Liquid inclusions (LI), i.e., water in the form of a saline solution.

2. Gas inclusions i.e., gases entrapped in tiny cavities, or in negative crystals within the larger parent crystal.  The gas inclusions can generally be seen as tiny moveable bubbles (MB) or stationary bubbles (SB) within the cavities.  The number in (   ) after the letter abbreviation is the quantity of that type of inclusion or feature that can be found within the crystal.  (S) indicates several inclusions are present.

3. Anthraxolite inclusions (A) – small included particles of irregularly shaped, black carbonaceous material.  Anthraxolite is a hydrocarbon mineral, and is often fluorescent yellow-green.

4. Negative crystals (NX), i.e., inclusions which have the form of microscopic, euhedral, double terminated Quartz crystals suspended within the larger parent crystal.

5. Other misc. inclusions (OI) as microscopic, elongated or irregularly shaped voids without specific form.

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